Research Note

A conjugate gradient method for solving the non-LTE line radiation transfer problem

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 14 Av. E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France e-mail: fpaletou@ast.obs-mip.fr

Received: 14 May 2009
Accepted: 26 August 2009

Abstract

This study concerns the fast and accurate solution of the line radiation transfer problem, under non-LTE conditions. We propose and evaluate an alternative iterative scheme to the classical ALI-Jacobi method, and to the more recently proposed Gauss-Seidel and successive over-relaxation (GS/SOR) schemes. Our study is indeed based on applying a preconditioned bi-conjugate gradient method (BiCG-P). Standard tests, in 1D plane parallel geometry and in the frame of the two-level atom model with monochromatic scattering are discussed. Rates of convergence between the previously mentioned iterative schemes are compared, as are their respective timing properties. The smoothing capability of the BiCG-P method is also demonstrated.